Residents of Deir al-Balah - one of the few cities in the Gaza Strip that were not captured by Israeli forces during the war in the Palestinian enclave - will vote in municipal elections on Saturday, Reuters reported, quoted by BTA.
Some of the candidates support "Hamas" and the elections are a rare opportunity to assess how popular the armed group is, the world agency notes.
Palestinians believe that the United States will try to deepen the division between the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank and see the vote as a chance for national unity against American plans.
These will be the first elections in the Gaza Strip since 2006, when a vote for a parliament was held and "Hamas" received more votes than the Palestinian Authority, Reuters recalls. Subsequently, a short-lived war broke out between "Hamas" and the dominant West Bank group "Fatah" of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. Ultimately "Hamas" managed to take control of the coastal territory.
On Saturday, municipal elections will also be held in the West Bank, the fifth vote there since 2005. In January, the Palestinian Authority announced that it would expand the perimeter of the municipal elections to the Gaza Strip - "wherever possible." Analysts see this as a symbolic gesture aimed at showing that Gaza remains part of the project for a future Palestinian state.
Farid Taamala, a spokesman for the Central Election Commission, said that about 70,000 Palestinians were eligible to vote in the elections in Deir al-Balah. The candidates are grouped into four lists, one of which includes Hamas sympathizers. The Palestinian group did not field official candidates and did not endorse any of the names on the lists. Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem said the movement would respect the results of the vote.
Some polls show that the radical movement is still popular in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank despite the devastating two-year war with Israel in the enclave.
According to a poll by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research conducted in October 2025, 41% of Palestinians in Gaza support "Hamas", while 29% support "Fatah".
The municipal elections come as US President Donald Trump's so-called Peace Council is pushing forward its plans for the future of Gaza, Reuters notes. The territory is expected to be revived under the leadership of a politically impartial committee of Palestinian technocrats. According to the plan, "Hamas" must hand over control of the enclave to the Peace Council and disarm, and Israeli forces must withdraw from Gaza.
"Hamas" has so far refused to disarm and accuses Israel of violating a ceasefire announced in October.
The Peace Council plan makes no mention of the West Bank, Reuters points out. The Palestinians have long sought to create their own state uniting the West Bank and Gaza.
Palestinian political analyst Reham Ouda said the municipal elections were "a message to the world, the Peace Council and Israel that the Gaza Strip is an integral part of the Palestinian political system."